POSTAL 2
Postal 2 is a first-person shooter by Running with Scissors and is the sequel to the 1997 game Postal. In 2005, an expansion was released for the game, titled Apocalypse Weekend. Postal 2, bundled with Share the Pain and Apocalypse Weekend was re-released on Steam on November 2 2012, as Postal 2 Complete. Plot Players once again take on the role of the Postal Dude, a tall thin man with a goatee, sunglasses, a long black trench coat, and an alien t-shirt. After slaughtering everyone in his home town in the first game, he has moved Paradise, Arizona and lives in a trailer with his nagging wife. Every day, his wife demands him to complete a number of errands, in which he must put up with being flipped the bird, mugged, attacked by protestors, put upon by an obnoxious convenience store owner/terrorist and his patrons who cut before him in the "money-line", plus a Marching Band, a murderous toy mascot named Krotchy, the Police and SWAT, the ATF and the National Guard, a religious cult, savage butchers, psycho Taliban terrorists, and Gary Coleman. After carrying out these tasks which almost get the Postal Dude wound up in jail or killed, Paradise erupts into complete carnage due to his actions over the week. As he walks home, he witnesses civilians and law enforcements battle it out while cats fall from the sky. He arrives home safely, however it turns out he forgot one last item to get for his wife, and therefore, he attempts to shoot himself in the head to stop listening to her nagging. Gameplay The game levels are split into days of the week starting Monday and finishing Friday. Players can select from a huge list of difficulty options, from easier than easy, to impossible itself. At the beginning of each day, the Dude is given several tasks to accomplish, such as 'Get milk', 'Confess sins', and other tasks. The purpose of the game is to finish all of the tasks throughout the week, and the player can accomplish these tasks in any way he wishes, be it as civilly or as chaotically as possible. The daily tasks can be accomplished in any order, and the game includes an extra task that is only activated on Friday if Dude performs a special action. In-between tasks, the player is allowed to explore the town of Paradise, causing chaos or just moseying around. Completing errands is essential however, as some districts and areas of the town are barricaded up, thus unavailable to the player until a later day. The game also has a large array of weapons to use, from shovels right up to rocket launchers. When exploring, these weapons can be found in areas that are out of the common sense, such as sewers and rooftops. Controversial aspects Violence and police brutality * The option of attacking and/or killing police officers and soldiers, as well as bystanders. * Decapitating people with shovels or similar weapons (katana, machete etc.) and kicking the heads about. * Setting people on fire with a variety of methods, from gasoline and matches, to molotov cocktails and napalm launchers or even the kicking about of burning heads. If a kill by burning is achieved in multiplayer, the game will refer to it as a "Tibetan monk experience". * Stun gunning people until they cower on the ground and urinate on themselves. * When the Postal Dude wears a police uniform and brutalizes innocent people, other police officers openly admit that they Dude are corrupt, sometimes even remarking to the player to "Watch it, someone might have a camera", clearly a reference to the Rodney King beating. At several points in the game, police NPCs are seen attacking and killing civilians for no apparent reason. Furthermore, while they will attempt to arrest the Dude if he commits a crime, they will always attempt to kill any NPCs that participate in the infighting, usually by beating the NPC to death with their batons even if the targeted NPC has surrendered and begs for mercy. In multiplayer, if the player beats another player to death with a Police Baton, it is noted as the killed player's "Rodney King Impression". * Playing "fetch" with dogs using the severed heads of slain NPCs (it should be noted that dogs "friendly" to the player will also fetch any non-food items dropped or kicked around by the player). * The add-ons (see above) add the ability to dismember NPCs with weapons such as chainsaws, katanas, etc., and watch them attempt to crawl away. This ability is enhanced in the A Week in Paradise mod. References of current and past events * Al-Qaeda terrorists who carry out a suicide bombing of a church and a marching band (these characters all resemble Osama bin Laden and many characters in the game of Middle Eastern descent are shown to be connected in some way with the terrorists). * The hunt for weapon of mass destruction in Iraq is parodied in the weapon called the "Weapon of Mass Destruction", found in the Tora Bora area. It is a variation of the rocket launcher that fires chemical missiles. * Anthrax-filled cow's heads used as weapons which make the victims vomit blood. * A scene that bears resemblance to the Waco Siege of 1993, with a cult group being surrounded by ATF agents at "the compound". * Jihad, the company that makes the goat milk in Monday's chores (Which is to buy this milk with or without paying. Doing the latter results in the shop owner attacking the Postal Dude). Stereotypes * Homophobia in the shape of an arcade game prop called Fag Hunter. The AWP mod (included in the Fudge Pack release) expands Fag Hunter into a mini-level where the player has to kill 20 stereotyped gay NPCs (depicted as bald, unshaven men wearing pink dresses). * Racial stereotypes, such as Habib, the owner of the Lucky Ganesh convenience store, who speaks with a stereotypical Indian accent similar of that of Apu from the FOX sitcom The Simpsons. Habib appears to be a Muslim, yet at the same time his store has obvious Hindu elements. Miscellaneous * The use of cats as silencers for shotguns and machine guns by pushing the barrel of the gun into its rectum. This was commented on in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. * A kid's TV show mascot named Krotchy, who is essentially a giant cartoon scrotum. A talking toy with his likeness even says phrases such as "Daddy said only he can touch me there!" or "Don't touch me! I callin' my lawyer!" when used. Krotchy has a partner character named Larry the Crab, whose toy seems much less popular (indicated by the toy store being filled with Larry dolls and no Krotchy because Krotchy toys were sold out). * Numerous jabs and insults aimed at Joe Lieberman, including a banner that reads "Leiberman sic, God sees your lies", the easiest difficulty setting is "Liebermode", and in the final newspaper announcing the apocalypse on Friday, a byline that reads "Lieberman blames Doom". (After a player's death or suicide, if the game is left running without restarting or reloading a saved game, NPCs standing around the body will invariably make statements such as "Somebody call Lieberman" and "I blame Doom"). Similarly, several jokes are aimed at Dave Grossman such as a video arcade named "Grossman's Arcade". * The game allows the player to urinate on people, making them vomit in disgust. Category:Postal 2